Stress & Weight Loss

Stacy Bebber-Gartner
Feb 12, 2023
5 min read

Stress can absolutely throw us some curveballs but did you know that it could be preventing you from losing the extra weight you have been holding on to and could even be causing you to gain weight.

So, here is the nitty gritty. Stress is your body's natural response to, according to Merriam-Webster, being off balance and can be "physical, chemical, and emotional." Typically, when thinking of stress, we think of the outward and physical appearance of stress. Someone can "look" stressed or frazzled but we often fail to see the inward effect stress can have on our bodies. We often attribute weight gain in our middle years to settling & slowing down, eating more, having less time to be active or a slowing metabolism. While all of this might be true, middle age can also be a stressful time for many of us. Often, we are working, shuttling kiddos, trying to maintain a household and our nurture our relationships. It's a lot and it's talked about far too little.

So let's talk about the physical, chemical and emotional impact of stress.

Physical

Physical symptoms, according to the Cleveland Clinic, can look like any of the following:

Body Aches
Chest Pain
Heart Palpitations
Stomach Problems
Elevated Blood Pressure or Heart Rate
Headaches
Trouble Sleeping
Lowered Sex Drive

The majority of these problems or symptoms are from what is happening INSIDE of our bodies.

Chemical

Your body's response to stress is a survival mechanism most often referred to as your FIGHT OR FLIGHT response.

Imagine this:

you're in the woods and you're just hiking alone. You hear a noise. Some sticks breaking maybe some rustling leaves. Your heart rate starts to increase and your sense of hearing has become more heightened. You start to observe your surroundings. Is it a bear, a dog, another hiker, that hot guy on Instagram that just chops wood? As you are looking for what is around you, your body is preparing to fight or run.

Your hypothalamus is setting off a siren that you might be in trouble. Your adrenal glands pick up to signal and hormones like adrenaline (heart rate increases and blood pressure increases) and cortisol (dumps glucose into your bloodstream because you need to run or fight). Cortisol is also going to slow down other processes going on in your body so that all of your blood, energy and hormones can go to keeping you alive. This fight or flight response temporarily suspends things like your immune, digestive and reproductive systems. No one is having sex or pooping if a bear is in the woods!

Now, imagine that your body has this same response to your daily environment. You always feel stressed and reactive. These processes that can literally save your life can kill you if you are subjecting your body to them regularly. This leads to the next section....

Emotional

Prolonged exposure to the chemical reaction of our fight or flight response can wreak havoc on our emotional health. Any one of the physical and chemical effects of stress can lead to anxiety, depression or sleep problems.

So, how does this lead to weight gain?

Remember that part about cortisol, glucose and digestion? Without getting too nerdy on you what basically happens is your body isn't using your energy correctly because it thinks you need to run from that bear all the time. Glucose, needed for energy to run, is dumped into your bloodstream, but you don't use it. You get around to calming down, heart rate starts to slow and you have everything under control. But you didn't run. Then, hormones are released after to increase dopamine (feel better) and to replenish your energy stores quickly (calories) by increasing cravings for energy dense foods that are higher in fat and sugar. This can create the perfect weight gain storm if you are subjected to this type of stress or react this way to stress often and it's difficult to fight a system that was engrained into your biology to keep you alive!

So, there aren't any bears chasing me so what can I do?

Stress is not always a bad thing. Stress can keep us safe and it can also keep us sharp mentally. It's poor coping and over exposure that send our bodies into hormonal disregulation. When we can find ways to be PROactive towards our stressors rather than REactive we can mitigate our response. First, we need to determine our stressors. Keep a journal, document when you feel stressed, what you did to respond, how you felt and then what you did after. What did you eat or do? How was your sleep before and after the event?

Here are is a list of ways that you can cope with or minimize your stress:

Keep a Journal. First, we need to determine our stressors. Keep a journal, document when you feel stressed, what you did to respond, how you felt and then what you did after. What did you eat or do? How was your sleep before and after the event?
Sleep. Planning to get to bed early can help ensure we get enough sleep. When things get busy this is one of the first things we start to pull time from. Make getting to be non negotiable! A lack of sleep can make us more irritable and more reactive. Our patience is spread thin already and THEN we get stressed and have to react. This is not going to end well. For tips on how to improve your sleep check out my blog post on Ways to Improve Your Sleep
Schedule Exercise. Dedicate time in your schedule to exercise. I KNOW that I am not going to be consistent working out in the evening so I schedule my workout first thing in the morning. This ensures I get it done; it's non negotiable. Exercise itself, cardiovascular exercise, can have a positive impact on stress and can actually last for some time after the exercise session. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough to gain the benefit. Similar benefits can result from yoga.
Meditate. Meditation can have many health benefits to include decreasing stress, blood pressure, improve attentiveness, improve sleep and can even decrease pain. You don't even need to meditate for long. Start meditating for as little as 4-5 minutes to start to see benefits. You can add this right as you wake or just before you go to sleep.
Breathing Exercises. Breathing exercises can help with the reaction to stress. When you start to feel stressed you can use breathing exercises to help reduce your heart rate. This gives your brain time to kick in and evaluate if the "threat" is a threat at all. This can be as simple as using a technique like box breathing.